All posts tagged Neil Volz

The opening scene of Alex Gibney’s latest documentary recreates the murder of Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis, a Florida businessman who was gunned down after selling casino cruises to a cohort that included former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. It’s a suspenseful sequence straight out of Miami Vice, with shots fired on a dark Fort Lauderdale street, followed by the neon-lettered title: “Casino Jack and the United States of Money.”

The film, which screened last night at New York’s IFC Center and opens May 7, is a real-life tale of greed and deceit that chronicles the downfall of Jack Abramoff and attempts to illustrate a larger evil, what the Oscar-winning Gibney describes as “the selling of America.” Both sobering and humorous (we learn, for example, that Abramoff decides to become an Orthodox Jew after watching “Fiddler on the Roof”), the film takes a stab at campaign financing, depicting it as legalized bribing.

Gibney interviews journalists, watchdogs, and politicians about Abramoff’s stellar rise from college republican to influential lobbyist, his involvement with Russian spies, Indian Casinos and Chinese sweatshops, and the ensuing scandal that led to a jail sentence of more than five years. Most significantly, he interviews those who fell along with “Casino Jack,” as Abramoff is known, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, former Ohio congressional representative Bob Ney and Ney’s onetime Chief of Staff Neil Volz.Read More »

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